The invention relates to devices for convenient delivery of purified water from bottles, such as conventional five gallon bottles, and particularly to devices for delivering pressurized purified water from a five gallon bottle located at or near the floor level.
The presence of minerals and impurities in water that adversely affects the taste and/or safety of the water for drinking purposes has led to a large demand for purified water. The production and delivery of purified water is a large, worldwide industry. Purified bottled water commonly is delivered to millions of homes in five gallon plastic bottles. Persons who receive such bottled water delivery services also usually obtain dispenser units designed to support the bottle when inverted, usually at approximately counter top level. The seal of the unopened bottle is removed, the full bottle is lifted and inverted, and its neck is inserted into an open-topped reservoir of the dispenser unit. The neck of the bottle forms a "valve" when the water level in the reservoir reaches the neck of the bottle by preventing air from entering the bottle and thereby preventing more water from draining out of the bottle. A dispensing valve connected to the bottom of the reservoir allows the purified water to be dispensed by gravity flow into a drinking glass or the like. The above-described dispensing unit is relatively inexpensive. However, the heavy, filled five gallon water bottle must be lifted, inverted, and placed on the dispenser. Many people, especially older people, find it very difficult to lift filled five gallon bottles; injuries an accidents often occur during such lifting. Inconvenient spillage of water often occurs as the bottle is inverted and positioned over the mouth of the dispenser unit. Furthermore, the only way purified water can be drawn from the dispenser unit is by gravity flow from the spigot. Many people would like to have purified water supplied to ice makers, hot and/or door cold drinking water delivery units of their refrigerators, and other appliances. However, this is impossible with the above-described dispensing unit.
To avoid the inconvenience of the above-described dispensing units, some vendors have provided various activated charcoal filtering systems that are connected to existing plumbing systems to remove impurities from the cold tap water. Pressurized water from the filter is supplied to an extra spigot installed adjacent to a kitchen sink or a wet bar. A tube connected from the charcoal filter outlet can be connected to a refrigerator ice maker. Replacement of the charcoal cartridges of such filter systems is inconvenient and somewhat expensive. Furthermore, many undesirable minerals and other non-organic materials, including toxic substances that may be present in municipal tap water are not removed by activated charcoal filters.
Other vendors supply reverse osmosis filtering systems that are capable of supplying a few gallons of highly purified water per day. Therefore, the water supplied from reverse osmosis filtering systems is not adequate for some purposes. Furthermore, even low output reverse osmosis filtering systems are very expensive.
The closest prior art is believed to be a system that utilizes a 12 volt DC electric pump that draws water from a built-in reservoir and supplies the water directly from the electric pump to a water delivery system in a recreational vehicle, boat, etc. A control switch in the delivery system is actuated to turn on the electric pump to initialize delivery of water from the system and is actuated again to stop delivery. This type of device is commonly used in recreational vehicles, such as travel trailers, boats and motor homes, and can remove water only from the installed reservoir. However, the system would be completely unsuitable for the purpose of supplying purified water because the installed reservoir ordinarily is filled with municipal water which is used to supply water to the bathroom facilities in those vehicles as well as to the kitchen faucet, appliances, etc.
Thus, there is an unmet need for an inexpensive system that provides a continuous supply of pressurized purified water drawn from five gallon bottles of the type in which purified water is commonly delivered, located approximately at floor level.